It’s the third edition of the Weirdass Pajama Festival, but it’s the first time that founder, comedian and actor Vir Das has brought the festival series to Bengaluru. Performing to a packed MLR Convention Centre’s auditorium in Whitefield on January 29, Das even chose the city as the launch pad for the Pajama Fest, which travels to eight more cities including Jaipur, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Mumbai until February 7. The other big change is the festival moving out of club venues and smaller spaces to the big auditoriums. Despite his years of experience with shows such as The History of India and Battle of Da Sexes, Das admits he still gets the jitters before getting on stage. He says, “I don’t feel like I’m ever ready for a crowd. I mean, if you’re not nervous before a show, then you’re doing something wrong. Even for me now, there’s 2,000 to 4,000 people at a show but I’m still nervous. You have to treat 50 people the same way you treat 4,000 people, though.”
While Das and his team have tapped several more international comedians than before for this edition, the comedian is also performing with a Singaporean troupe called the Singapore Slingers. In a chat with Metroplus, Das talks about Weirdass Pajama Festival and his future plans.
This is the third edition of the festival and it’s expanded to more cities – is it risky experimenting with comedy in India?
Yeah, a festival is always risky because you never really know how it’s going to go. The first year we did the Pajama festival, it was in Mumbai and we had 3,500 people. Last year, we did it in three cities – Mumbai, Delhi and Pune – and we were looking at about 9,500 people across the days. This year, we’re doing it in nine cities in about 10 days, so there will be upwards of 30,000 people coming in across the nation.
And you’re also moving out of clubs into auditoriums this year. What prompted that?
Our concept was pretty clear this year. Last year, we featured the entire domestic line-up as we did the year before. But as you know, the domestic line-up hasn’t written a lot of new material. They are gigging across the country anyway. So we decided to get 65 percent of our line-up from abroad. The Pajama got a lot more buzz last year because we had international comedians. We have a team of Aussies, Americans, Brits, Singaporeans and Malaysians. And they’re all coming down to India for the first time. And to back them up, we have 25 of the best Indian comedians and we want to put them in auditoriums. Because you know that many people will come in.
Is the change in venues also because club venues in India are often not the best spaces for stand-up comedy?
I believe any environment is good for stand-up. The idea behind the festival is also to charge club prices but for an auditorium setup. It’s affordable but with good lighting and space and all of that stuff.
Tell us about the shows you’re a part of at the festival – On the Pot and Funnypedia.
I started this thing called the Potcast 15 weeks ago, which is where I sit on the pot and do the news from the loo, on Facebook. It tends to goviral every week. We get 900,000 views every time we put out an episode. It was a big hit with the fans, so we thought let’s do this show where we put nine shit-pots on stage and get nine of my friends we all talk about the news. Funnypedia is a cool show that features every different kind of comedy in one go. You have insult comedy, roast comedy, stand-up comedy, musical comedy, improv – all in one show.
Is Funnypedia like a comedy workshop?
It’s different styles of comedy, like a magician and a puppeteer are also there. The idea is to give the audience every kind of comedy. The strength of the Pajama festival is that you get to see things you’ve never seen before. Even one of our flagship shows is called Kings and Rajahs of Comedy. It’s the first time you’ll see English comedy and Hindi comedy unite for one evening. So you get to see Raju Shrivastav, Sunil Pal but also myself, Imran Yusuf and a few more. You also get to see Dana Alexander and Mandy Knight, who are great as well.
Some of the comedians on this line-up are shifting from a club to an auditorium – what was that shift like when it happened to you?
I think for me, it happened really fast. I ended up becoming one of the first comedians to do stand-up in auditoriums, on that scale. I also did History of India – it’s the largest selling comedy show in India. That show went viral except it was on-ground, you know? Selling 2,000 tickets in hours – it happened overnight. Around that time, Delhi Belly had just come out so it all came together at a good time.
Tell us about the international line-up.
The Americans who are coming down are a very good line-up, because these are all people who have got 15 or 20 years of stand-up comedy experience under their belt. They’re coming from the Laugh Factory and the Comedy Store in Los Angeles – that’s two of the best places in the world, right? Singapore has this amazing comedy scene that nobody knows about – it’s going to be five or six really amazing Singaporeans. I’m excited for that.
How do you manage your schedule right now with films and comedy?
The day after the festival ends, I leave for the US, for a 10-city tour. It’s pretty hectic. From the US, I’m going to Bulgaria to shoot Ajay Devgn’s film. My next off day is on of April 15. I’m just kinda trying to pop a lot of vitamin C and stay strong.
